Prep School
Details Schenley graduate is a Big East recruit :Friday, January 02, 2009, Post-Gazette The Patterson School in North Carolina has sent dozens of players to Division I colleges. A former Pittsburgh City League star looks like he'll be the next. Deandre Kane, who played at Schenley High School for three seasons (2008 grad), is excelling at the prep school (08-09) and has Division I scholarship offers. Kane said earlier this week he will choose from Pitt, Seton Hall and Marquette. All three have offered him scholarships. Kane, a 6-foot-4 guard, denied an Internet report that he had made a verbal commitment to Seton Hall after visiting the school a few weeks ago. "I'll probably wait until April 2009 to decide," Kane said. Kane said he is averaging more than 20 points a game for Patterson, which is one of the top prep school programs in the country. Kane decided to attend the prep school to improve his grades and also to hopefully catch the attention of more colleges. He said he is academically qualified to be eligible as a freshman next season. Some Patterson products are playing at Memphis, Xavier, LSU, Oklahoma, Kansas State, Seton Hall, Arkansas and Tennessee. Arkansas freshman guard Courtney Fortson, who had the school's second triple-double earlier this year, is a former Patterson player. So is Seton Hall's Jeremy Hazell, who was the Big East player of the week earlier this season. Patterson coach Chris Chaney has had eight NBA draft picks play for him over the years. "The school has been good in preparing me for college next year," Kane said. "It was good to get away, too." Kane led all WPIAL and City League scorers last season with an average of 31.1 points. "I think I'm better than last year. I'm bigger," said Kane, who now weighs 193 pounds. Besides going to Seton Hall, Kane also made an official visit to Pitt a few weeks ago. He also plans to visit Marquette. Pitt stepped up its recruitment of Kane after 6-5 guard Dominic Cheek of Saint Anthony (N.J.) recently announced he will attend Villanova. Cheek was considering Pitt. If Kane selects Pitt, one of the current players or an incoming freshman would have to leave because Pitt would be over the NCAA's scholarship limit. Kane likes his hometown team, but said he is not totally sure where he stands in the eyes of the Panthers' coaches. "I want to stay home, but Pitt doesn't contact me a lot. I don't talk to them a lot, like I do the other schools," Kane said. "I don't know how much they want me." No matter if Kane chooses Pitt, Seton Hall or Marquette, he will be in the Big East Conference next season. And that only enhances the reputation of the 2007 Schenley team. How many teams from the WPIAL and City League have had two Division I players in the starting lineup in the past quarter century? Not many. Now consider this: Schenley had three future Big East players on the '07 team that won the PIAA Class AAAA title. DeJuan Blair is a standout at Pitt and D.J. Kennedy is the second-leading scorer at St. John's with a 12.9 points per game average. They were seniors on the 2007 team when Kane was a junior. Category:News coverage